21 Months!

Our sincerest congratulations to Emily and Craig who had these two sweet babes named Astrid and Stella. All our best to your new family and sleep patterns.








The past four months have been jam-packed with fun, trips and learning to say "NO!" Both Liam and Oliver say "Noh-noh, noh- noh." It was totally adorable the first few hundred times, and now is feeling a tad terrible-twoish. Even though our rug rats are still quite small, they are learning new words and animal sounds everyday. They enjoy giving each other hugs and fish kisses, and like to climb. At parks, they run in different directions; although, if Liam is on the swings, Oliver needs to be right next to Liam. They have decided to fall in love with Sesame Street, and can name most characters.
Oliver is very interested in where Liam is at all times- he says "Miam?" whenever the child in question is out of the room. He calls himself "Ah-vah." Also, the boys are in love with their father and ask for him ad nauseum. When I get up to get the boys out of bed in the morning, they cringe from me and say "noh-noh, Da-da." Whenever the dog starts barking to announce a visitor, the boys run to the door screaming "DA-DA!" Oliver and Liam have taken to calling me Amy rather than just Mom from time to time, thanks to Tia Lu.


Daycare is finally over for the year and I am home on summer holiday, so we are at long last getting back to a sleep schedule that works for everyone and making summer fun running around Main Street, coffee shops, lakes and the backyard.






Many exciting events took place in the last four months. I was able to go on a ridiculous senior trip to the Bahamas (see large absurd Cruise Ship and imagine 53 seniors on a floating bed in international waters. Super fun.)
We celebrated Easter at the Gambill's house with the Brent/Scherer families and had a fun and relaxing spring break filled with Vampire books, salt mine tours and spring swimming lessons for the boys. The boys also had their first ever hair cut, given by Gammy Scherer. All were happy that the hockey-mullets were gone except for me.



We also had a big ole party for Chris "Ivy" Ivers, who turned 35 in April. We went to Swan's German Market for lunch (what is birthday lunch without cured meat and pitchers of beer?), his mates took him to a brewery tour in Rochester, and then we spent the evening at Lauren and Erik's eating more pork and possibly sampling some of the brewery's wares.

































May was when teaching + momming became a little too frantic a pace for a mere mortal like me. I believe in the last blog I raved about how all of my worry about returning to work was for naught. I was wrong, once again. Luckily, the weather was improving and Liam and Oliver started to be able to run around on the outside of the world. We were able to visit with Chris, Cat and Logan Brent at the Conesus cottage, Aunt Nancy came to babysit, the Ivers came over for a relaxing Mother's Day (my new favorite holiday), my students had their Renaissance Festival at school (thanks to Grandpa Scherer for babysitting!), Kim McGann moved into her new home, Andy Scherer turned 2, and we were able to celebrate Tony Jones' bday with another brewery tour- this time the Southern Tier brewery. We also had another two pot-lucks, one at our home and one at Dori and Justin's. Good food, good company- new babies!







June brought the Keuka triathlon in which Lauren, Erik, Scott "Gorgeous" Giorgis, Chris and I participated. We kicked serious arse. Many loving fans came to watch this hilarious race- Jen, Kim, Michelle, Ben and Nancy- and then tailgate with us afterward. What is the point of doing a triathlon if you can't drink beer and eat junk-food after? Thanks to Gammy and Grandpa Scherer for watching the boys!


Also during June we had a fabulous time at the Bailey-Jones potluck, celebrated Ben's birthday (before he took off to Utah and Nevada for his NSF grant work- Congrats!), enjoyed the APOG beer and wine tasting, visited the Geneseo Art Stroll, and went to the Strong Museum for an afternoon of fun with the characters of Sesame Street and Tia Lu.


We took two weekend trips: the first to Pittsburgh and the second to the Catskills. We were able to spend another fantastic weekend with Uncle Joe, Aunt Katie, cousins Johnny and Andy, and Grandpa and Gammy Scherer, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Nancy. We went to the Carnegie Science Museum (see photos) and the boys fell in love with the water table. We also got to swim at the hotel, and in general relax and hang out with the darling Johnny and Andy boys. Happy 5th Birthday, Johnny!

We brought Tania, Scott and Dominick to the Catskills and were able to visit there with Grampy and Babcia, Zio Jonathan, Aunt Pat, Aunt Judy and Marty. Happy Birthday Grampy! The weather was beautiful, the lake was warm, the food was phenomenal. The funniest part came when the boys were walking down to the beach and Oliver ran right into the water, socks, shoes and all. Do you know how much water a diaper can absorb? About 5 pounds. It's quite shocking, really. The boys subsequently went swimming and we ended up with a baby-nudist colony at the Ivers cottage.


































So far, July has brought chillaxing wonderment. Megan and her wonderful friend Eric (from Sconnie) came into town for a visit. The boys loved Aunt Moo and her Boo and Chris and I loved seeing both of them! We went to the Brent cottage for the annual 3rd of July Ring Of Fire- Thanks Uncle Art and Margi! We had a great time swimming, jumping on the trampoline, eating junk food and not sleeping. Oliver was up forever saying "Miam, Miam? Dada? Fish, fish (kissing noise), Nigh-Night? NO-NO!!"

























You may notice photos of boys standing on a beautiful table- Grampy Ivers made this for Liam and Oliver. Thanks!















You may also notice that Liam and Oliver both posed for a photo shoot in a cop car. Is it freaky to anyone else how comfortable Oliver seems? At least Liam had the good sense to appear unhappy.




One of the boys new favorite games is playing in Chris' new car. Please (for the love of everything good) ask Chris about cars. I don't want to hear about them any longer. Why can't the boys want to talk about turbo-charged engines and cylinders yet?????






Happy Birthday to just about everyone! There were a lot of birthdays these past months- hope you all enjoyed!









We wish you all a wonderful summer!

17 Months

The Ivers boys have conquered daycare! These past two months have been a whirlwind of crazy changes in our home and the boys have handled everything their parents are putting them through with grace and dignity. And fevers. And puke. And a lot of poop.
I've heard that once kids go to daycare they get sick. Now people are telling me the whole truth- they MAY possibly be healthy again by kindergarten. My poor sick Liam and Ollibear!
Aside from the sickness, the boys have taken to daycare very well- they love their teachers and adore the big red fire engine (the first few days I had to wrestle to extract them from this toy.) They generally get along with the other students and fight amongst themselves if they are really troubled. Although, last week when I was checking their progress, one teacher told me that Liam was instigating fights with several children and then Oliver was running around yelling at the kids who fought with Liam. Should we be proud?
Liam and Oliver are big talkers. They have a myriad words in their collective arsenal, although many of the words sound exactly the same as the others. For example, "MMMAAAAAA" means milk, mom, and more, among other things. "BBBAAAAA" can be the sound a sheep makes, the first part of Poppy's name, and the word ball. They play fetch with balls- running around the house screaming "BAAAw, BAAAw." They also hate to lose sight of Poppy and if they see her out of the back door, they pound on the glass screaming "BABA" and will not relax until someone lets the dog in.

Our boys still have an avid social calender despite their Mother's return to full time work. We've had a number of exciting visits and parties over the last few months. Babcia and Grampy Ivers showed up for the inauguration, although the boys were sad to have slept through all of the exciting parts. As soon as the Ivers returned from their vacation to Florida, Liam and Oliver were excited to see their grandparents again for a break from daycare and some special brownies.





Gammy and Grandpa Scherer had a few visits despite Gammy's surgery, which she is recovering nicely from. Gammy also showed up with
sweets for the boys.

Aunt Nancy has come for some very exciting visits as well. Usually, Aunt Nancy and I sit around gabbing for hours until I'm dragged away for a date with Chris while Nancy watches the boys.


You may notice the fancy vests the boys wear constantly these days. Katie Scherer bought them for Oliver and Liam and evidently they are the best things that ever happened to little boys. They will scream "BYE-BYE" at the door until we dress them in the vests- even when we don't leave the house all day. I'm so glad they're cute!











Oliver and Liam have been excited to attend a new grouping of potlucks with the Giorgises, Bailey-Jonses, and a bunch of new friends in the area. There have been two potlucks so far that have been wildly successful, and all of our kids are happy to play along with their parents and fall asleep upstairs when the party gets too rowdy for them. I love this age!








Another exciting party our family attended this month was Tia Lu's 30th Birthday Celebration! Boy Laur, you are getting OH-ELL-DEE! Lauren insisted that we all go rollerskating at the local disco rink, eat Indian food a la Erik (Drunkle Ick) and then stay up too late for having small children. I must say that it is odd how much Liam and Oliver love spicy Indian food. Perhaps there is something to that reincarnation thing...
We were able to hang out with our favorite out-of-towners Lipa and Chris Perry, and Keith Jones and Shelly. Great to see you friends!




Liam and Oliver have also been party to their Mother's political bent while attending negotiation strategy sessions with the York Teachers' Association. Luckily, the negotiators are child friendly folk, and Chris is a great babysitter of children of all ages- who knew?? (We just sort of dropped all of our children into his care and he happily took up the cause. You'd think he likes kids or something.)





Liam and Oliver's best buds Dominick and Lena are growing wonderfully and visiting a lot. Dominick and the boys sometimes even show signs of playing together (instead of parallel play in the same room), and the boys love to stand around and poke at Lena. They try their best to say "Lena" but usually it just comes out "LLLn". Even though Tania has found new candidates for stay-at-home BFF moms, I'd like to publicly say she's still tops with me.












Liam and Oliver graduated to the big kid tub this month and have an amazing time splashing around in the water, getting the dog, cat and their dad soaking wet.







































In other family news, I have had to give up my weekday yoga club, but have posted a beautiful photo of Sara Kelly doing one last morning back bend in our back room. You also may have noticed the photo of some very happy women in a hot tub at the top. This was at Maggie Cashman's birthday celebration at Mirbeau Spa in Skinneatles. It was such a wonderful treat to get away with my friends Jean, Sara and Maggie to celebrate. It was my first night away from the boys and it was heaven. Happy Birthday Maggie!






Chris and Tony are working on beer again and will have new batches of some seriously decent beverages soon. You may want to come visit for this.

I leave for a trip to the Bahamas with the York Senior Class this Thursday (I know, I'm a moron.) Send happy thoughts to motherless Liam and Oliver while I attempt to leave them for my first extended time. It will be good practice for a parent trip this summer.

If you're wondering how the return to work is progressing- well, shockingly, it is just fine. I forgot how much I love teaching. It is not a sexy job, nor a high paying one, but it is rewarding work and sometimes when I'm sitting talking History with 9th graders, I feel exceedingly lucky that I get paid for something that is so much fun. Now I just need to quit some of the other 18 million things I was doing while I didn't have a full time job.

Finally, happy birthday to Lauren, Sarah, Karrie, Rachel, David, Dan Repinski and Poppy. Have a great year!
Enjoy spring everyone!