Paige Hannah Gromfin is almost 3 months old and already is an amazing baby. She was born at Mt. Auburn Hospital on August 28th, 2005 at 1:36 am and was 7 lb 4 oz. She has auburn hair and dark blue eyes - beautiful.

Paige is sweet, mellow and started smiling at us at around 5 weeks.Elizabeth is very happy with her little sister and is very protective. When other kids come over to look at her she makes sure they keep their distance and their hands off her!

She's had a busy first three months of life (and I've had a fantstic maternity leave!). Here's a quick overview:

• Trick or Treating on Halloween
• Arlington Town Day
• Frankin Park Zoo
• Yom Kippur Break Fast at Ginns
• Up to VT to see grandparents
• Two birthday parties (for E's friends Emma and Neva)
• Drumlin Farms Fall Festival
• Our Pumpkin Carving Party
• Skidmore's Halloween party
• Pumpkin festival in Boston Common
• DeCordova museum
• Brandeis Rose Museum
• JFK Library
• Cinderella Puppet Show at Winchester Library
• E's gymnastic classes and Tot Gym sessions
• October Childrens Village Board Meeting
• Park with E lots of times
• Walks with Mom several times a week
• Harvard Square several times
• Drinks at Casablanca then the 'Future of Food' movie at the Brattle theatre (w/Suchi)-

11/18/05 post:
2 month check-up
Paige was 12 lbs (gained 5 lbs in 8 weeks!) and 23" tall

Now Elizabeth...

E's vocabulary is huge now and she's been talking in full sentances for months. She comes out with some really good zingers:

- when I called her diaper "stinkerooney", she said "stinkerooney and cheese"
- she calls us "blockhead"
- she said she has a tiger in her zoo on a hill in Arlington

We're a few months past her swearing stage. She started saying the F-word about a week after Paige was born. We tried ignoring it for a couple of weeks but the swearing got worse. And she was using the word in context. When I was changing a particularly stinky diaper on Paige, E looked at the messy diaper and said "Oh F$%@!"

Ignoring it wasn't working, so we had a full day of time-outs after each swearing. I told her to use "rats!" or "raspberries!" instead. This seemed to work. We still hear her say, "I not say the bad word"

More Egg notes (at 2 yrs 3 months)

E: baby sister is here (I'm 8 months pregnant)
L: oh really, where is she?
E: at the library

E was trying to pull on some tights (in 90 degree weather). She calls them "skirt socks"

We were driving home last week in the dark and passed a baseball field all lit up with giant field lights. Egg woke up and said, "too sunny. turn off the sun"

new favorite food is popcorn, especially for breakfast with a banana

Egg has pretty much shaken off her water phobia. She went from crying and trembling around pools and beaches to loving it. D brought her to the Arlington Resevoir in mid-July and that's when things turned around. She had a blast and we're trying to give her as much pool or beach time as possible. She was in the Abt pool last week, in the ocean (Maine coast with Suchi) on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, then in the Abt pool and Arl Res this week. She barely cries when she falls and goes under.

Recommendation for second baby: bring her in the water consistently from about 6 months on to keep her from developing a water fear.

Genius child.

Ok, time to brag. Egg could say her alphabet and count to 10 before she turned 2. Soon after that she was able to recognize letters from a headline or a book. Now at 2.25, she's able to recognize and say about half the alphabet. She can count up to about 15 and can usually tell us how many of a certain object there are (ie. two apples, three fingers).

Her vocabulary is huge and she can easily carry on a conversation with us. She even talks to her buddies, Maya and Phoebe. very cute.

Big news! Eggy peed in the potty on July 12th! Then again on the 13th - both times after her bath. She was pretty pleased with herself.

OK so we have been a little lax on our updates... what's four months in the life of a 2 year old?

Yesterday was Elizabeth's second birthday. She turned two! She had a little Jello party with nine other tots at Children's Village, and the day before she had a fun party at home with friends and family.

Party-goers included:

• Fred & Joan Rowe
• Wendy Rowe
• Kris, Scott, Xander, and Mason Lohan
• Jack Cochrane
• Charlie, Kathy, Colleen, and Raymond Whitaker
• Suchi, Mark, and Maya Baranoff

Today was her 24 month check up at Dr. Landis'. Basically she received normal and above average scores on all tests - physical and developmental. For the record she is 34.5" tall and 27 lbs, 8 oz. She's in the 75th percentile for height and between 50th and 75th for weight. She's a solid little chunk of human-bean.

Egg and I were having breakfast this morning and when Danny came downstairs, E said:

"Daddy! ... no more nonnies!"

Translation, "Daddy's not asleep anymore."

Recent Highlights:
- She can count to 3 now and sing parts of Twinkle Twinkle. smarty pants.
- She likes doing her ABC's
- She's started to give us an unsolicited "Thank you!" when she gets a snack or we do something for her
- She went sledding for the first time on December 27 on the Robbins Park hill.
- We all spent the weekend in NYC from Jan 1 - 3 and stayed with Barry & Promita. Went to Central Park Zoo, Times Square at night, Rockefeller Center skating rink, etc.