The Ivers Family: February 2010

Liam and Oliver named their stuffed cat Woof. Oliver named his stuffed monkey Fever. Really, Fever? Yup, Fever. We have some serious attitude from these boys at this point. They know who they are, they know what they want, and they'll stop at nothing to get it. Neither weighs over 27 pounds and they're already running us around like teens on opening night of Twilight after Taylor Lautner and his abs. More and more of what comes out of their mouths is funny. In December on the way home from daycare, Liam informed me "I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with meat tonight for dinner." He also routinely tells me that Oliver wants all the things he doesn't. For example, "Mom, Ahvah likes veggies. Miam no like veggies."

Both boys charm their way into bossing people around. Our two-foot-tall tyrants like to order their well-over-six-foot tall friend Ben around when he comes over. "Ben, stand up! Ben, pick Ahvah up! Ben Throw Miam! Ben, helicopter!" Chris and I are enjoying our toddlers more and more as the days go by. They're turning into little people, adopting new and amusing vocabulary, and developing hilarious relationships with each other and relatives and friends. For instance, during bath time while playing with a pirate duck with an eye patch, Liam and Oliver decided amongst themselves to call him Grampy Duck after their beloved (and sadly, one-eyed) Grandfather Ivers.

The boys have also started what we call "Chef School with Dad" most nights. This consists of assisting (not at ALL) Dad in his creation of the evening meal. They move their chairs to the counter and pester their father to "My see, my see!"
We have also begun a tradition of wild dance parties in the evening. We don music with a good beat and flail wildly until we collapse on the couch and pretend to go to sleep.

When the boys fall they yell either "Man down!" or "I bit it!" They enjoy counting to ten, regardless of how many items actually exist. Sometimes they make up items to count just so they can count to ten. In the bath tub we regularly count ten alligators. Also in the bath, the boys have invented a new swimming game where they lay on their bellies and splash forward and backward in order to create a wave big enough to toss the bath toys overboard (sorry, Grampy duck.)
The boys also love to sing- On Top of Spaghetti, Old MacDonald, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle- you name it, they'll sing it. Often they sing in tandem at the dinner table. My favorite is the "l, m, n, o, p" section of the ABC's which are sung by flicking their tongues in and out of their mouths.

One of the funniest things Liam did this winter happened at about 1am one morning when he woke both Chris and me out of a deep sleep screaming "Daddy, Daddy, where are my SHOES???? My SHOES?????" Of course, we beat feet into the room to see what in the world had gone wrong, and Liam projectile vomited all over the rug. That is, by far, the best way to tell people you are sick.

And now begins my brief recitation of the important events of the last several months. I accidentally loaded the photos backwards, so they start with New Years and end with September. Sadly, to find out what the photos mean, you may have to read this.

First off, two amazing new babies have been brought into the world of late: Maggie Brent and Elena Giorgis. A HUGE congrats to our friends Cat and Chris and Tania and Scott.

Liam and Oliver's second birthday party was held on Columbus Day weekend in the park in Geneseo. We had a wonderful crowd of family and good friends, including Aunt Judy and Marty who came in from downstate. Tia Lu and I made a dragon cake that the boys and everyone else present made short work of. I can't believe these boys are 2. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of their lives.
Happy Birthday to Gammy (also on both boys' bday) and to all the other October birthdays, including: Zio Jonathan, Uncle Ick, and Babcia Ivers.

In October and November we were busy with potlucks, an apple-orchard bday party for Kim, Scott and me, Erik's birthday party, and the sweet, sweet swine flu. (Thankfully, that was just me and my awesome parents took the children out of our home.) Aunt Moo (Megan) came in to visit for a few days to play with the boys and see us. The boys fell in lurve with her- and possibly the feeling is mutual.

Lena Jones turned one in November and had a spooky birthday party replete with costumes! It was a blast. Congrats to Tony and Rachel for doing a great job the first year.
After the party, we all walked to Main Street for the Geneseo Halloween Parade. Our little Lemur and Panda played with Grampy and Babcia Ivers waiting for the parade to start, and we all tried to dissociate ourselves from Chris who had a questionable, at best, costume on for a children's parade.

Right before Thanksgiving, we were happy to have Megan, her Sconnie Eric, and Aunt Sarah visit. This trio of out-of-staters hung with Liam and Oliver and shared a beer or two with us afterwards. Great to see you!
We also had a visit from Chris' oldest friend David. We missed the rest of the fam- but Chris will see them all soon.

Thanksgiving was a tremendous Ithaca time. We did the marathon dinner-dessert Thursday with Ivers, Pellerins, and Funkes which is always a rocking time. Cameron set up his old Thomas the Train set and Oliver and Liam went to town. The next day, the adult-adults watched the kids, while the adult-kids went downtown to shop (read: drink Margarita's). I am thankful for a ton this year.

Christmas time brought us a Day-care dance recital (absurdly darling), a Giorgis potluck made even better with the addition of a white-elephant gift exchange (Nancy's HOT), a Reinert beer-exchange party (I'm so glad to know those cats), and the first Christmas tree the Boys helped decorate.

Christmas was a raucus-wild-hullabaloo. We started at the Poppop and Gammy Scherer house for Christmas Eve and morning. Everyone showed up! The boys got to play with their favorite cousins, John and Andy, and the whole gang: Joe, Katie, Aunt Moo, Tia Lu, Uncle Ick, Aunt Sarah, Jake, Aunt Kathie, Uncle Tom, Chris McGinley, and Aunt Nancy and Aunt Mimi.
On Christmas Eve, the boys went down for a nap in the guest room, climbed out of their pack-and-plays, and trashed the room. They took everything out of all of the drawers, bookshelves, and luggage. When my mom found them, they were stapling my underwear. Christmas morning was wonderful- the boys started getting the magic of opening boxes. Christmas day was a wonderfully relaxing day spent at Nancy and Mimi's house.
The next day we drove to see the Babcia, Grampy and Zio Jonathan Ivers, and Aunt MaryAnn and Tim Charron. We spent a few chill days in Ithaca, eating well and playing with choo choo trains before we packed for about 8,000 hours and went home.
Merry Christmas!

The time between Christmas and New Years was blissfully relaxing. We got to see some of our favorite people: Karrie Gurnow had a delicious dinner in Rochester, Keith Jones and Shelly stopped in for some baby-time, Zio Jonathan came into town, and we got to hang with the regular gang. Chris Brent had a birthday, as did my Dad on New Years Day.

The New Year Party this year was a study in asinine antics and absurd fun. Brian Thomashefski brought his remarkably technologically advanced karaoke set-up. The guests arrived, ate food, drank a sip here and there, and eyed the microphone and speakers warily. Then someone broke the ice. (Yes, that would be me. I can't help it; I am cheesy.) From that moment on, you could not pull these people off the stage. I passed out around 3:30am and the party was still raging- I'm pretty sure the photos can speak for the rest of the evening. The highlight was Erik Reinert singing his rendition of "Shudup ah Your Face." It was amazing to see Dan and Laura, KJ and Shelly, the Brent family, and even Kim, Dori and Justin singing their hearts out to 1980s hits. Jonathan rocks the George Michael. Nancy is the queen of Twisted Sister. Chris may as well BE Neil Diamond. And Ben ought to quit his day-job.