JillandMorgan.com

About two months ago I was on Facebook and I saw that one of the toy stores I like was looking for cute babies for their holiday catalog and they wanted people to send in pictures of their kids. Just for the heck of it, I sent in a snapshot of Enzo smiling in his car seat:

A few days went by and lo and behold – he was picked! The photo shoot was in Boston so Papa volunteered to come with me to help out. When we arrived at the studio we were so surprised to find that the room was SMALL and it was HOT. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I think it was about 115 degrees in there. Babies were crawling around just in their diapers to cool down! Papa took Enzo out in the hallway for some fresh air and I waited inside for our name to be called.

While I was waiting I watched the other kids. Some of them were being cranky and mean to each other but as soon as they got in front of the camera they looked like angels, smiling and posing like pros! You could tell which mothers brought their kids to these types of things all the time. Very eye-opening.

After waiting over an HOUR they finally called Enzo’s name and put him in front of the camera. He was supposed to push a walking toy that shoots out balls. He held onto the toy, but he froze like a deer in headlights! For about two minutes he stood like a statue holding the toy while everyone in the room tried to cajole him into walking. Finally, he burst into tears. Of course, I felt horrible so I rushed in and scooped him up.

After that, they gave us a gift card for the store (which will go toward a new car seat) and told us to keep an eye out for the catalog… Check out page 24!
http://flipseekpubs.com/publication/?i=90609&utm_campaign=Emailvision-holidaymagalogdigital-Nov30-2011&utm_content=5339296974&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Emailvision

Don’t worry, everyone – we’re not making audition tapes for “Toddlers in Tiaras” anytime soon. It was just a fun adventure with two of my favorite people and it will make a nice keepsake for Enzo’s baby book. Hopefully he’ll get a kick out of it someday!

Love,
Jill

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving with our family. The festivities began Wednesday night when we got to see Tate (aka – DJ T-Bone) at Destino’s in Chatham.
Here’s a pic of Tate before the dance floor got PACKED with people:

On Thursday morning we got up bright and early and headed down to the Elk’s Club for the Hudson Turkey Trot. Morgan and I ran together and finished the 2.5 mile race in 21 minutes, 19 and 20 seconds (respectively). I even won 4th place for my division and Morgan won 8th in his!

After that, we spent the afternoon eating, drinking and playing games with the family.

Here’s Enzo with his buddy Johnny:

Pearl wearing her handmade turkey hat:

All the great grandchildren played together so nicely! Here’s a pic and hopefully I can figure out how to upload a video later:

Tomorrow we’ll bring out the Christmas decorations and start decking the halls!

xoxo

The other day Enzo was trying to get Pearl’s rubber duckie. She was holding it out of his reach so he started fussing and then I heard her say, “That’s a fake cry, little buddy!”

Ha!

Enzo had a great time at Open Gym while Pearl was having her Thanksgiving party at school this morning. He even got up the nerve to crawl through the tunnel!

Me, peeling a sticker off a banana: Oh, this banana came from Guatemala. Pearl: Um, no. It came from Shop Rite.

-Morgan

Today was a a big day: It was my first parent/teacher conference at Pearl’s school! I wasn’t worried, but I was so curious to know how she’s doing. I got into the meeting with Pearl’s teacher and the first thing she said to me was, “Pearl is so sweet. She is kind, polite and so good with the other kids.” I almost jumped out of my seat! We talked for a while and she said that Pearl is very observant. She knows what everyone else is doing in the class. “Not in a tattletale-y way though.” The only thing we still have to work on is that she still puts things in her mouth- Paper towels… Paint… Glue. She’s getting better, but her teacher said that she keeps an extra eye on her.

Inappropriate tastings and all – I can’t tell you how proud I am. We have our “moments” with Pearl, but I thank God every day that she is OURS and we feel like the luckiest parents alive.

xoxo
Jill

One of Enzo’s favorite pastimes is to take all the cans out of our cupboard and stack them on the table or his high chair (please forgive the blurriness):

Sort of like someone else I know: http://jillandmorgan.com/2010/01/independent-woman/

-Morgan

At breakfast this morning-
Me: Pearl, it looks like you got some beauty rest.
Pearl: (adamant) I got some BIRDIE rest, Mama.

She also made up a song, the lyrics of which are:
“How old am I now? Something, something. How old am I now? Something, something.”

She sings these lyrics over and over for LONG periods of time.

-Morgan