"All By Myself"

This is a little math project that Lexi did last night and it just made me smile for so many reasons that I had to post it. Of course, any mom would be proud of a five year old doing these types of equations, but here are the real reasons why it made me so happy...

1) She decided to do it all by herself last night, after her friend Elizabeth apparently gave her a little math lesson in school.

2) When she needed a bit of help with the concept, she asked her Daddy. Both Lexi and Zach seemingly always come running to me first for help, so anytime they ask Daddy for something it makes me really happy.

3) Once Daddy explained the concept to her, she went into the living room and quietly did all of this by herself - only asking for help with the last one, 12+12=24.

4) The thing that makes me most happy about it is that she is really PROUD of it!! She hardly ever takes credit for amazing things that she does - she will always point out what wasn't right about any project or acheivement, but she was so proud of this that she asked me to take it to school to show all of her teachers this morning.

5) My favorite part - where she wrote "LEXI ALL BY MYSELF".

She is one cute kid.

A Carrot A Day...

This morning I reminded Lexi that I would be picking her up from school a bit early. When she asked me why I told her that we both have appointments to see the eye doctor. She asked me why we had to see the eye doctor, and I explained that it was very important to have our eyes checked to make sure that they are healthy and working properly, to which she replied, "But Mom, couldn't we just eat some carrots instead??"

Thanksgiving/Birthday Weekend Top 10

My favorite weekend of every year is my birthday weekend. This is the weekend that, not only do I get to celebrate my birthday, but we get to kick off the Christmas festivities for the year. The family rule for the weekend (which is long, technically beginning on Thanksgiving morning) is that everyone has to do what I want to do, and no complaining. I had such a great weekend this year, that I decided to write a "Top 10" list for it.

10. Starting off Thanksgiving watching Lexi and Zachary run the Feaster Five Kids K. Lexi was moved into a longer event this year, and did great until another kid tripped her. But she got up and finished the race anyway. Zach, being only two years and one day old, did not really grasp the concept of the race, and mostly walked. But he was caught on video, which was pretty cool! After their race was over, I hopped in the 5 mile, and despite a fall of my own, ran pretty well with a time of 40 minutes and change. Great way to start a day full of eating!!




9. Thanksgiving dinner with the RI Lippman Clan. There is no better meal than Thanksgiving turkey with stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce and pie. Grammy made a great meal this year, and we all enjoyed a very relaxing and wonderful meal with the family. We even had a birthday cake to go along with the *five pies* for dessert. It was a great day, and hopefully Auntie Kae will share her pictures with us, as we forgot our camera!!

8. Christmas Tree picking. Okay, I'll admit it, I am anal about getting the best tree on the lot. Last year we went in October to tag our tree at Turkey Hill Farm, which was later cut fresh for us on my birthday weekend. But this year we forgot, so we had to cut our own at Smolaks. It was fun, but I rushed everyone out the door at 8:45am on Saturday morning (forcing Lexi to miss her dance lesson)to ensure we were the first ones on the farm. We were the second ones, but the first to cut, and first to leave the lot. The selection was not vast, but we were happy with our fresh tree.

7. The North Andover Santa Parade. Every year for as long as I can remember I have sat on Gram's front curb and watched the Santa Parade march by. The only exceptions were the years I danced in the parade as a kid. It's on of my Christmas Season highlights, and this year did not disappoint. Everyone had a great time!
6. Birthday morning (despite being woken up early by Zachary's very first bloody nose - sorry buddy, no one in this family gets spared!) I was allowed to go back to bed and sleep in until 8:30am!! When I finally rolled out of bed I was greeted by hugs, happy birthdays, smiles, and a brand new iPhone! What a way to start a day!

5. Lexi and Zach's first movie! I thought it would be fun to take the kids to see Rapunzel, and since it was my birthday weekend, and everyone had to do what I wanted to do with no complaining, Ahren never once pointed out that bringing a two year old to a movie might be a bad idea. We just packed up and headed over there armed only with three boxes of raisins. Well, as dumb a plan as it may have been, it worked out wonderfully! Everyone loved the movie, and Zach and Lexi sat still and quietly through almost the entire thing. It ended up being a very fun family activity!

4. Birthday Dinner with my friends at Yokohama. I hate fire. Hate it. I'm terrified of it. However, my favorite meal is Filet Mignon at a Teppenyaki Table. Since we were all gathering for our 15 year class reunion, my closest friends, Ali, Brian, Julie and Dave, Heather and Tim, Ahren and I all went to dinner at Yokohama in Lawrence for their Teppenyaki Grill. Although I had to hide behind Ahren for a good portion of the cooking (they really go crazy with the fire in this place!!) I had a great time. It was really nice to sit and chat with all of my good friends, without our kids to distract us. From there we went to the reunion, which was ok, but did not top our dinner.

3. On Sunday morning we had our traditional pancake breakfast. We do this frequently on Sunday mornings, and it's my favorite part of any weekend. I love sitting around the breakfast table, all still in our jammies, talking about what we'll do for the day. There is no rush, we're all awake and perky, and Ahren makes some kick-bum pancakes (usually with the help of at least one little munchkin).
2. Tree decorating! Each year we invite Gigi, Poppy and Great Gram over on the Sunday evening after tree-buying for some tree decorating. This year the kids did most of the decorating, and they did a great job! The evening was complete with peppermint bark, eggnog and Kahlua, and some black bean soup for dinner.



1. The number one thing I enjoyed about my birthday weekend - getting to spend the entire thing with my friends and family! I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life, and there is no greater birthday gift than having the pleasure of spending time with all of them. I am one, lucky Mama!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Zachary!

Dear Zachary,

Today you turned two years old. Two seems so old, and while I still try to hold on to your babyness, I see it fading away more and more each day. You are turning into a beautiful, happy, friendly little boy who can walk, talk and do a million things all by yourself - "I DO IT!!".
You love to help with anything you can do. You will search around the house to find the tiniest crumb on the floor, just to show it to me and say, "Yucky Mama? I throw way?" and then proudly march it off to the trash can. Helping Daddy in the yard is one of your favorite things to do - presumably because you get the added benefit of getting filthy while you're out there together. But the huge smile on your face is totally worth the extra laundry.


You absolutely adore your sister Lexi, and she adores you right back. You mimic every single thing she says and does which I suspect will begin to annoy her when she gets just a tad older, but for now she thinks its pretty cool. She knows that she's your role model, and she tries very hard to teach you everything she knows, and you, my son, soak it right up. I've now learned that if there is something I really need you to do, I only have to get Lexi to ask you to do it - works every time.
Even the cats have started to trust that when you say, "I touch nice" you actually mean it, and they've been brave enough to stick around long enough to test the theory. While you're still all boy, and love to bonk heads, poke eyes, etc...you do seem to understand that with the cats, and with babies you have to be very gentle all the time. You are truly a kind soul.

Zachy, due to your first birthday party being canceled due to a yucky stomach bug, you ultimately ended up getting three or four birthday parties, and you loved every single one of them. "Happy Birthday" is one of your favorite songs, so having a crowd sing it to you over and over was a great present all alone.

And you had no problem downing three or four cupcakes over the course of a few weeks...


Zachary Thomas Lippman, you are our little angel boy. We all love you so much, and can never get enough of your huge smile, fantastic "till you fall down" giggle, and super strong hugs. You make me smile and laugh a million times a day, and that makes me feel like the luckiest Mama alive.
Happy birthday my little handsipants - I love you, love you, love you!!

Love,
Mama

Stop Me If You've Heard This One...

Lexi and Zachary love to tell knock knock jokes. Lexi really only knows two - 1)"banana", "banana who?", over and over and over until we tell her she has to stop and she finally says "orange" "orange who?" "orange you glad I didn't say banana?" (Zach tries to tell this one too but just says "applenana" when you ask who's there.)
2)"boo" "boo who?" "are you crying?" We hear these jokes over and over and over and over again in this house. Typically they both try to tell me a knock knock joke at the same time, which gets very confusing. But this morning they were telling them to each other which was refreshing and very amusing...

Lexi - "knock knock"
Zach - "who's there?"
Lexi - "boo!"
Zach - "AH!"
Lexi - "You're supposed to say 'boo who?'"
Zach - "boo who?"
Lexi - "Are you crying?"
Zach - "no?"

Zach - "knock knock"
Lexi - "who's there?"
Zach - "applenana"
Lexi - "applenana who?"
Zach - "Are you crying?"
Lexi - "No Zach, you say it like this..."
Lexi - "knock knock"
Zach - "who's there?"
Lexi - "boo"
Zach - "Are you crying?"
Lexi - "Hey! It's my turn!!"

I suppose at some point they'll both get them right. But for now it's amusing listening to them try.

Halloween Festivities

It seems to me that when I was a kid, Halloween fell on one day - October 31st. We would put on our costumes for two hours, walk around begging for candy, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, and then it was over. One day. But now it seems that Halloween needs to be celebrated by everyone for weeks! Don't get me wrong, it's fun...but it's become more of a production than Christmas around here! First we had a Halloween themed neighborhood party a few weeks ago (which was a blast), then last week Zach had Halloween gymnastics (kids dress in costume) on Monday, Lexi had pumpkin decorating on Monday and Tuesday, Thursday Zach had a Halloween daycare party (costume again) and Lexi had p.j. day on Thursday and Friday in celebration of Halloween. Saturday was Halloween party dance class (costume!!) and finally Sunday arrived and we dressed one final time in our costumes for trick or treating (which was extended one hour this year). The kids had a blast, and we did too, but I am SO glad it's over. This week will be blissfully boring - all school and activities are to be attended in regular clothing with no required craft supplies. Ahren called me a Halloween scrooge for suggesting that it was a bit overboard this year. I think if he had been the one to coordinate the crazy schedule, he may have been feeling the same way.

Either way, the important thing is that the kids had fun. Here are some pictures of some of the fun we had over the past few weeks. The first picture was taken two weeks ago when Devan, Jen and Baby Eva came for Uncle Doug's services. Lexi was very happy to meet her newest cousin! The next few are from the leaf pile fun Ahren and the kids had, then pumpkin carving and trick or treating. Enjoy!

Uncle Doug

On Sunday, October 17th Ahren's Uncle Doug passed away after a long, and extremely courageous battle with cancer. There are no words to describe how much he was loved, or how much he will be missed. From the moment I walked in the front door of the Lippman home ten years ago I felt welcomed by Uncle Doug. And later, when Ahren and I were looking for our first house, Uncle Doug spent countless hours driving back and forth from Worcester to North Andover to help us. He always had a smile on his face, even when times were the hardest and he certainly made an impact on all of our lives.

We'll miss you, Uncle Doug. Thank you for being you.