HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARTY!
We've been having tons of fun these past few days celebrating birthdays! It started with lots of presents being delivered for Joli (and Jada!)

Then, Jada surprised us all by discovering that her hands were actually tools -- she started grabbing the toys on her swing! Now.. she's trying to grab her feet.


The cute thing is that now she actually sucks her thumb! How cute!


Joli picked out her special "party dress" which happened to be 3 sizes too big, but we let her wear it anyways:


The kids had lots of birthday cake (again)

And even Superman delivered the cake to the girls!! What a surprise!!

We had so much fun! Thanks for coming to the party, everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOLI!

It's official -- she's 3 years old! Joli had a great birthday! She started out the day with a suprise of balloons and gifts at her bedroom door.

Then, Mia, Uncle Jon, Gavin and Tita Mari came over for lunch. By the time Uncle Paul arrived, Joli was exhausted; however, she didn't want to be away from him, so she decided drag her bean bag into the livingroom to be closer to him and take a nap!

We then went to Lola and Lolo's house where one of Joli's gifts was a "video karaoke". The kids went wild (and the adults did some cameos, too!).

Then, it was time for cupcakes.

The kids had a great time... especially Gavin.
Let's see... year in review? Since her last birthday, we moved to our new house, went on a great vacation to Sesame Place... oh, got diagnosed with cancer... had eye removed... began 6 month course of chemotherapy.... could pronounce words like "stethoscope", "Heparin", "chemo", "Boston", "traffic", "blood pressure", "flush my tubes", ... met baby Gavin and baby Lillian ... had lots of friends and family support us with a hugely successful fundraiser... had more MRIs/Bone Marrow Punctures/Exams Under Anesthesia than most people undergo in a lifetime... got a "special eye".... received even more love and support during Christmas from total strangers... learned how to write my name! ... learned how to use the POTTY... became a BIG SISTER!! ... went to a wedding... and TURNED 3 YEARS OLD!! Hurray!! yea, it's been a good year! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOLI!!!

I'M ALLLLMOST THREE YEARS OLD!

Just a few more hours until Joli turns 3 years old! She spent her last 2-year old hours on the couch, eating popcorn, and watching Calliou. It was the episode where the power went out, which was appropriate because our power had just gone out! Wow -- remember when Tigger was BIGGER than Joli????

Joli has been lovin' that her cousins are around. Here they are at the park --Uncle Jon and Dad are being super-manly and pushing all the kiddies on the swings while Mari, Jenny and I sat and drank slushies.

Here are the girls practicing for their "monthly" photo shoots:

Jada is so happy to be Joli's little sista (Jada.. by the way.. has officially outgrown all of her 0-3 month clothing ALREADY!)!:

Fun with the Cousins!
We're so excited to finally have the cousins around! check out some of these great pictures from their rather trouble making adventures!

Gavin LOVES to snuggle Jada and sneak kisses to her. We're teaching how to be g-e-n-t-l-e, though (he smacked her in the face the other day...!)

"Get me out of this playroom! I want to see the world!!"

Joli and Mia are doing a pretty good job figuring out how to be playmates. They've spent so long being the center of attention on the different coasts, so it's a learning process! They're doing well so far as they learn about what makes the other one annoyed, etc. They're pretty smart -- they figure out really quickly what gets attention from parents and everyone. It's definately nice to have the two of them together!

There are also some great pictures of the first time to the zoo as a traveling bunch!

GOOD EUA and my "MILLION DOLLAR JOLI"

Joli had her exam under anesthesia (EUA) today, and all is well. No tumors have developed. Dr. Mukai thinks we can do the next exam just in his office next time rather than under anesthesia (we'll see....it might be tough!). Jorge wasn't able to come with me, so thankfully, Grace joined me and got to see the "joy" of these visits (extreme sarcasm there, thank you). Joli absolutely did not let them put her eye drops in. She was screaming bloody murder -- which seemed to be her favorite thing today. I mean, this child was SHRIEKING! She was screaming like I've never heard before -- so much that I didn't even really recognize her voice when she was screaming in recovery. I kept asking Grace, "Is that Joli? Does that sound like Joli?? It can't be...." Oh, yeah. It was JOLI.

MILLION DOLLAR JOLI: While Joli was in recovery, she used all of her boxing skills that Jorge has been teaching her. Yup, I said it. Boxing... maybe more like kick-boxing. She kicked one of the nurses square in the stomach, and then she punched one of the other nurses. Yeah. No joke. She was flailing so bad that they had to pad her stretcher and restrain her. She wanted no part of this. She was s-c-r-e-eeeeming for a good 45 minutes. The tough part is that there are other kids trying to come out of anesthesia, too, and there is truly nothing you can do to ease the pain. Joli is also dilated, so she's basically "blind" and waking up in a horrible way. Definately can't blame her. I guess I also can't blame her for vomiting down my shirt during her fit of rage.

Finally, after a good 45 minutes, she "sort of" calmed down - enough for Grace and me to get her into the elevator without someone thinking they should call child protective services or something. She eventually fell sleep as I was carrying all 36 pounds of her down the streets of Boston to get to our car.

JoJo seems fine now. She's still a little unstable, but she's in a much better mood.

When she was getting gassed, the anesthesia team decided to sing "Happy Birthday" to her since her birthday is next week. As a child psych major, I'm guessing this was either a good thing to do (she seemed to calm down a little when we were singing to her) or the most rotten thing ever (will she associate "Happy Birthday" with a horrible memory??). We'll find out next week, I guess!

Jada news: Yup, her first fever. That poor little fella was hot as a potato last night, and she got her first dose of Tylenol ever.

Oh, Jada!

Jada officially weighs in at 13 1/2 lbs and is 24 inches long (which is just 1 foot shorter than Joli). She had 3 little shots today and didn't cry much. You go girl!

MAKING SCRAMBLED EGGS FOR THE FIRST TIME
Okay, so we're late with the "17th" pictures for June. Here is Joli with her famous Tigger. We figured we'd now just show her holding it since Tigger is about the size of her head now! (remember when Tigger was BIGGER than her entire body??).

Joli made eggs for the first time today! She cracked the eggs (with only a little bit of help), moved the butter around the pan with a spatula (and with very, very, very close supervision near the warm stove), poured the eggs, and moved the eggs slowly around the pan for the most perfect and delicious scrambled eggs ever! She was also great with directions like "don't touch the pan" and "not too close to the stove." Great listener! After all the cooking was done, Joli actually ate all of her eggs, too!

Way to go!

WE'RE BACK!
We had a great time at Aunt Kirsten and Uncle Paul's wedding. Kirsten was a beautiful bride, and Paulie was a handsome groom! The girls loved being "princesses" and did a great job walking down the aisle.

Jada took her first plane ride, and she didn't fuss or cry at all! Joli has been on a plane a few times, but this time she was old enough to really be fascinated with take off and landing. We did lots of swimming and playing. It was great meeting all of Kirsten's family!

We're now a complete family with all the cousins, brothers, sisters, and significant others here on the East Coast (JP counts as a commuting spouse, right??). The girls are getting used to having lots of playmates around, too. Poor Jada -- as the littlest one, she got picked on by the big cousins as the recipient of all of their fake lizards and frogs!!

Even Gavin got in on the action!

All in all, we had such a fun time on vacation! Jada has really started to "talk" these days, and she seems to recognize people. She LOVES Gavin! Whenever I say, "let's go see Gavie", Jada smiles! Joli is doing a fantastic job being a big cousin and big sister to all the little ones!