happy halloween

Ruby in baby's first Halloween onesie.

Kai carved Simba (from Lion King) per Luci's request into the pumpkin shown here

and this is Luciana in the same outfit 3 years ago! the 2 girls are almost the same size even though Luci was 2 months older for her 1st Halloween.

Luci this year - as Rapunzel/princess (same as what she wore last year) - posed in front of Kai's car for Woodcroft's trunk or treat - kai recycled on old chair into a skeleton - it is really cool!

and Luci as Tinkerbell for her school's Halloween parade

posing with her 'best' friend Lilliana at school

the Explorers class - Halloween 2011

carolina in my mind

for Arlo's (the adorable son of our friends Katie and Charlie) 1st bday party, we were asked to show our support for our favorite team - so we all donned Carolina Blue and took a few family photos.

ode to ryance

When I first moved back to NC in 2006, I didn't know too many people, so I joined a book club in the hopes of meeting some new girls to occasionally hang out with and talk books. I thought that if I was lucky, I'd connect with one of them. And then I met the group for the 1st time in September 2006 and it was the beginning of lifelong and true friendships with FIVE amazing people (we won't discuss the '6th girl'). Sadly, many of the girls were in NC only on a temporary basis and I've had to say good-bye to some wonderful friends - Kristen, Nicole and Liz. And now one of my best friends, Ryann, who spearheaded BCG (the Book Club Girls) and who I have shared many fun times with has headed off to Portland. Ryann and her husband Lance (who Kai has quite the bromance with) have been incredible friends to us. And have been phenomenal with Luci (even babysitting for free on several occasions)! We are very sad to wish them farewell, but are very blessed to have had them in our lives. And we can't wait to visit them in Oregon!

fall fun

this is a photo of luci and kai before they headed out on an adventure on one of kai's last days at home (the naked baby stayed home). they walked to the bus stop in our neighborhood, boarded the 'stripey bus', went to Southpoint Mall where they had lunch at Chik-fil-a and then went to see the Lion King. The movie left quite an impression on Luci, who now loves to play a game she invented called 'Simba'. She spent an hour the other day roaming around the new trails in our backyard singing 'I just can't wait to be King' over and over again. She also thinks the 'stripey bus' takes everyone to see the Lion King.

Luci helped Daddy blow out the candles on his 34th birthday - cake courtesy of Taty!

Luciana looking all grown up before attending a baby shower with me. She was very well behaved at the shower and did her best to be helpful by cleaning up wrapping paper. I was very proud of her!

Ruby's first foray onto the play mat. The same monkey that taunted Luci is back at it.

She seemed to enjoy being on the mat and looking at the different animals and the mirror. And Luci had fun decorating the mat - including draping a bunch of mardi gras style beads all over it.

We ventured to a gourd farm for some Fall Fun when Poppi (or as I like to call him Poppi Poppins) was in town. Poppi Poppins was a HUGE help. He made most of my meals, helped hold/soothe Ruby, played a ton with Luci, including several iterations of the aforementioned Simba game, folded laundry and took Jack on walks. We offered Poppi Poppins a full-time job (room and board included), but sadly he turned it down and returned to the Big Apple.

Anyhow, the gourd farm was a lot of fun. These days Luci gets a kick out of the smallest things - there were hens there which she saw when we first arrived and she was already jumping up and down with excitement. She thoroughly enjoyed the kids play area, the other barnyard animals, decorating a pumpkin and the corn maze, but the highlight was the 'spooky' hayride. The hayride, heralded by Virgil, who was quite the character was entertaining for all of us. We drove around the 'forest' that was filled with ghosts, witches, goblins and Big Bird (of course!) - many of these creatures became animated upon being activated by Virgil - which involved him poking them with a stick or clapping earnestly in their general direction - it was a very amatueur production, but all in all a total hoot and well worth the $4 price of admission.

Thanks to Amy, Ken and Tyler for Ruby's personalized chair. Right now she can stay propped up for approximately 1.5 seconds before the below happens. She'll get the hang of it soon enough!

One Month Old

1+1=2..... or does it?

katie and her handsome soon to be 1(!) year old son, Arlo

Auntie Ceeeeeej (Gigi's mommy)

Hazel, who just moved here with her wonderful family to Chapel Hill from Baltimore

Ryann, just back from her month long trip to Africa - Ruby now has the coolest I heart South Africa t-shirt

here's some notes about the latest in the Monast household:

• Ruby has a raging case of baby acne - we did not experience this with Luci - Luci decided to bypass 'normal' skin conditions and go straight to that horrible staph scalded skin syndrome where all of her skin peeled off - so we are extremely grateful for baby acne - though it does mean that there's a lack of close-up photos of the babe
• We are slowly adapting to Ruby's 3-4 hour days - essentially she eats, is alert for a short time and then goes to sleep and repeat.... and repeat.... makes no difference whether it's day or night, this is the way it is for now
• Luci continues to want to help with all things Ruby - she also constantly wants to hug and kiss 'she'. when talking about the baby, she refers to it as her baby. at the same time she has exhibited some classic jealousy behavior - telling me that Ruby does not need to eat when she does, asking me to hold her when i'm holding Ruby and waking up at odd hours of the night and asking me to come sleep with her - she is definitely looking for validation for her place in the family
  
• Having 1 kid comes with a certain amount of hard work and transitions (e.g. to a sleepless lifestyle) - you'd assume that the 2nd kid would double this effort, but instead there's that 'x' factor - the interaction/dynamic between the kids that seems to create an exponential increase in the amount of patience, love, and care required, so it's more like 1 + 1 + x > 2; i have no idea how people with more than 2 kids survive
  
• We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who have helped make this chaotic time in our lives easier - either by coming by to visit (the ones i remembered to photograph pictured above), bringing us food (and margaritas!), cooking us dinner, sending ruby and/or luci little cards and presents and just generally providing support - it really does take a village to raise a child and i love our little village
  

Ruby for Lucy

Promise will provide a comprehensive update post soon, but in the meantime, how cool is this? there's a band named Ruby for Lucy - http://www.myspace.com/rubyforlucy

And here's some recent shots of the sisters. I like how Ruby is attempting to eat Luci's arm in one. Sisterly love.