The Zoe and Silas Show

8/30/14: We've been letting Lucy in every few days in hopes of scaring the mouse away. The kids love it! After Derek went to work it was back-to-school shopping, day 2. Who knew it would be so hard to find uniforms in their size?! Apparently we are not the only family to procrastinate this god awful task.

8/29/14: We were tortured with back-to-school shopping on Friday afternoon. The kids took a much-needed jumping break between Stride Rite and Old Navy...

6/14/14: Derek and I had some clothes shopping to do today so we divided and conquered. Because I've lost so much weight this year S&Z are pretty accustomed to shopping with me and they have both become quite the little personal shoppers. Today Silas was with me and we spent a bit of time in Old Navy. After he gave me his opinion on all the things I tried on, he wanted to be sure to "try on" the tank top we picked out for him.  Sooooooooo cute! 

4/11/14: We made our weekly trip to the food coop after school on Friday. Silas insisted on weighing every single item we put in the shopping cart (even the bread!).

3/14/14: We love our weekly trip to the food coop! This week we picked up all kinds of goodies in the bulk food section, including pistachios, granola, and dried cranberries, raisins & mangoes!

3/8/14: We had a lazy morning at home on Saturday, which included lots of imaginative play on S&Z's part! In the afternoon we divided and conquered: Zoe and I went to Stop & Shop and Derek and Silas went to BJ's. Derek was off on Saturday night so we had a glorious date night checking out a new-to-us Mexican restaurant in East Boston. It felt like we traveled to a different city. I think that our future date nights (which happen every 6 weeks or so) should definitely include some aspect of checking out new neighborhoods or restaurants!

2/28/14: I have recently fallen in love with Athleta . What started as the quest for a new swimsuit turned into ordering some workout clothes that actually fit (I've been wearing XL and am now down to a M). I recently did a bunch of shopping online and needed to return a few things, so Zoe & I went to an Athleta store at Legacy Place while Derek and Silas made our weekly BJ's run. Zoe loved Athleta as much as I do. For about 2 minutes.

2/8/14: Silas has been wearing half 4T and half 5T clothes for a few months now. Zoe's drawer is populated by 4T but she often pulls from Silas' drawer and has some things that don't fit very well. I finally made it to Old Navy on Friday and decided to just buy a bunch of "gender neutral" (i.e., boys) 5T clothes from which they both can pull from. There were a few "girls only" purchases (see pants below), but for the most part I bought a pile of clothes they can share. Excited about all the new clothes, Zoe put together a fabulous outfit. We are taking a family trip to Portland, Maine for one night during School Vacation Week, so we headed out to look for pool flotation devices on Saturday. We didn't find what we were looking for, but S&Z found kid-size lanterns and fishing poles for camping this summer (which we didn't buy), and Derek found a new sleeping bag (which we did buy). We also found a $2100+ tent with a built...

1/11/14: Zoe had a really rough day yesterday with Silas getting so much attention. I think she also feels scared when he is sick. Our day yesterday started with Silas vomiting into my hands at the breakfast table and Zoe totally flipped out; things just went downhill when we got home from the x-rays. Given the circumstances we figured it would be best to divide and conquer today. Silas slept in until 9:00 this morning and was thankfully feeling MUCH better after some good rest. Derek and Silas hunkered down for the day at home, and Zoe and I headed out for lunch and shopping. After a quick morning workout we went to Joe's for lunch. After lunch I told Zoe that we were going to Legacy Place to do some shopping.  Z: What's Legacy Place? Me: That outdoor shopping mall we go to sometimes. Z: What's a mall? Me: [silent celebration that we must be doing something right!] After shopping we stopped at the salon for a much-needed haircut. We left t...

11/16/13: Silas got a much-needed haircut yesterday, and when checking out at the salon we were randomly offered a free calculator or calendar. I politely declined, but the receptionist motioned towards Zoe & Silas and handed me two calculators. The kids have been obsessed with the calculators since we brought them home! Seriously, new 4-year-old gift idea! Zoe likes to put in '4375' (our house number) and proudly show me the numbers; Silas likes to put in really long numbers - today he showed me '123456789'. Today's other news: S&Z are eligible for free pre-K next year through the Boston Public School system. 'K1' spots are limited and are assigned via lottery. Today was the "Showcase in Our Schools" open house so we had Sarah, one of my research assistants, babysit so that we could visit 5 elementary schools without kids in tow. It turned out to be an interesting and exhausting morning. Thankfully Derek and I walked away with our...

8/2/13: The name of the game today has been CAMPING PREP. We had food shopping to do, and a few last minute things to pick up. S&Z were so excited when they found these fishing nets. There is a pond at the campground, and we also play at Noanet Pond a lot so I think they'll get some good use! Outside of packing coolers in the morning, we are pretty well set. What has taken me 1-1/2 days to pack and organize, it just took Derek about 5 minutes to load into the back of the van. Meanwhile, the joys of summer roll on...

7/20/13: We went to Lakeshore Learning yesterday and got a United States map to hang on the wall. S&Z have so many questions about, well, just about everything that I thought it would be fun to show them on a map where all of our loved ones live (well, most of them anyway - the world map will be next, Dana!). The first question they asked was "where is our house?". The second questions was "where do Sue & Bob live?". We had a pretty low-key day on what was hopefully the last day of 90+ degree weather in Boston for awhile. I worked this morning and then met up with Derek and the kids at the Y. After nap we ran to Dick's Sporting Goods where I ended up picking up a few things we need for our upcoming camping trip. Shopping with the kids these days consists of them walking up to every display and item within reach and saying "what's this? what's this? what's this?". God forbid I don't answer them immediately or try to igno...

6/6/13: My good little helpers. We ran out of nighttime pull-ups for Silas mid-week so we needed to make a pit stop at CVS when I got home work.

4/12/13: Shopping for new sunglasses.

3/9/13: While Derek got groceries this morning the kids and I went to AC Moore. I've been knitting tons of cute baby hats and decided to start on a baby blanket for Natalie who has a 1st birthday coming up in May. Here are a couple of the recent hats. We pulled out all the 4T stuff for Zoe this weekend (Silas has been a size 4 for months now), so we also stopped at Old Navy to buy some 4-5T socks And it wouldn't be a day in the life without moments like this.

2/1/13: Zoe discovered mannequins today, and what better place to do it than Bloomingdale's? We must have been quite the site shopping in our puffy coats, hand knitted winter accessories, sweat pants and tennis shoes, looking at outfits that cost half of our monthly rent. I ushered us right out of there when she touched a short purple fur coat that cost  $15,000   and said "ooohhh, so soft!"

12/29/12: Our best little BJ's shoppers

12/16/12: Mommy & Zoe went yarn shopping today, and this is what she picked out for her hat!