The Blog

We have had some internal debate in the family regarding the utilization of bows, barrettes, hairbands and other fashionable hair accessories. It should be apparent that Keith is against these tools of fashion, Christine is strongly in favor of them. There is no need to hash out why each of us thinks the other is wrong about such a pithy subject, considering that Victoria herself has made the point moot. It turns out that Victoria LOVES hats. Be they winter hats, sun hats, her hats, Austin’s hats, or Keith’s hats, Victoria wants to wear them. In typical young child fashion, more is better and she has been seen with as many as 3 hats on her head at one time. Strangely enough, she would not wear a hat all winter long, much to the dismay of her mother. But with spring comes new interests, and among those interests are hats. More importantly, […]

Our schedules were such that we only ate one dinner together as a family per week. In contrast, when I was a child, growing up, nearly every dinner was at the same time, with the entire family (almost) always there. I felt bad that I was not able to provide the same experience for Austin. Thus began breakfast Friday, the one morning that both Christine and I would be home for a meal. He would help me make the breakfast of his choice, be it waffles, pancakes or french toast. He would help make scrambled eggs. He would help me cook the roasted potatoes. Austin would wake up every Friday morning excited to cook breakfast with Daddy. Eventually, as my schedule changed, breakfast Friday became breakfast Thursday, and breakfast Thursday would later become breakfast Saturday. Now, with the new job, we eat breakfast together every morning and dinner together every […]

May has been a very busy and fun month; we are sorry for not keeping you more up to date along the way, but Keith doesn’t have the same amount of time after Victoria’s birth as he had after Austin’s for blogging. Nothing personal, it is just that other things are going on in life. Austin is doing great…as would be expected. He finished his first year of preschool earlier this week. We are so proud of how big a boy he has become. Sure he has some of Daddy’s anxiety issues, but he remains bright, inquisitive, polite, and happy. He will be attending the same school next year, the only difference being how often he will be there. This past year, Austin went to school twice weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) from 9:00 to 11:30. Next year he will move up to the next level in the preschool and will […]

As some of you may know, Austin has been sick since Wednesday with a fever that has varied from high 99 to 104+ degrees (the worst being Friday in the early evening. As a result of his continued illness (he remains consistently between 101 and 102 degrees) we elected to stay home for Easter this year. It has been disappointing not spending time with family (and Christine is also a bit bothered by her inability to see the kids in the Easter attire), but we have been making the most of it. In light of all the time we have had on our hands this morning/afternoon, the blog has received some much needed attention, including videos of our morning today….hope you enjoy! Happy Easter! (* Keith discovered there is a cap on how large files can be, thus necessitating our sharing larger videos in multiple parts…sorry for any inconvenience)

This weekend, we were very fortunate to have Aunt Diane drive in from NJ with Grandma Shewciw, so that they could meet Victoria and visit with the rest of our family! [nggtags gallery=4,312a] Austin, in particular, had a GREAT weekend.  You see, not only did he have some company at our house (he LOVED playing doctor with Grandma), he also got an opportunity to go to some birthday parties on both Saturday and Sunday with Daddy (while Mommy stayed at home with Diane and Grandma).  Oh yeah, and there was NASCAR.  Surprisingly (insert sarcastic tone of voice here), no one in the house was quite as excited about the dropping/waving of the green flag in the race as Austin was. The moment arrived this past weekend when Christine was finally able to reclaim a little of her independence back as well. You see, as long as Victoria is tethered to […]

This week was the first with Keith returning to work full-time…which meant that there were more mornings with Christine getting up early and more evenings with Keith staying up late. It stunk for Christine a little this week because Keith returned to a workplace that required a lot of paperwork this week, which means that he needed to stay later than he likes while bringing home some paperwork to do as well (which he likes even less). As a result, Keith was around less in the evenings (in particular) to help get Austin and Victoria ready for bed and bathed…and it can be a bit tricky juggling 2 baths at the same time (one in the tub, one in the sink), but Christine does an admirable job, nonetheless. This weekend was a very busy weekend too…Austin had Dad’s Day at school on Saturday. Keith and Austin went to Bright Beginnings […]