the art of imitation

2 year olds are notorious for parallel play and imitation...

Here are some good examples from Hannah and Reagan (who is just 8 weeks older):

Hannah comes up to me and gives me the sign for eat. Reagan comes up and does the same thing.

Reagan puts her hands behind her head. Hannah puts her hands behind her head.

They are constantly watching eachother and doing what the other one does.

Reagan sits down to read a book. Hannah sits next to her and reads a book.

It's pretty awesome to watch!

Now, if only I could harness this imitative energy and ...

(I'm still trying to come up with a good use for it, any suggestions???)

not previously mentioned july highlights

It is the last day of July 2010 and so much has happened this past month that I have yet to write about.

Here goes...

I turned 30 this past month and really feel no qualms about being a decade older!
We celebrated by enjoying fondue at the Melting Pot (my favorite restaurant) with our friends the Seitz's. And then headed to my sister-in-law's house for some champagne & strawberries.

8 days later, Matt & I celebrated 8 years of marriage! Wohoo! We enjoyed a delicious, child-free date at Lucca's restaurant.

Where we sampled Governor Schwarzenegger's favorite dish - zucchini chips. (They were pretty awesome!)

Between my birthday and our anniversary we headed to Donner Lake for our first family vacation as a family of four!

While we were there Hannah caught her first fish, using her new Disney Princess pole. (She's been talking about it ever since.)

Incidentally, I caught a fish at the same time and sent Matt running between the two of us to reel them both in.

Matt caught his largest trout ever on this trip and discovered the best way to cook a trout - battered & deep-fried!

S'mores are my absolute favorite dessert and an absolute must when in the mountains and doing anything that resembles camping. Hannah enjoyed her first s'more on this trip and loved it! I'm so glad to have shared the moment with her!

What was Peter doing during all of these great adventures?

sleeping

Whew, that was a mouthful!
Thanks for making it through our highlight reel!

"burger me"

It is becoming a tradition in the Robbins' Family to have a burger competition each summer. All of Matt's siblings, their spouses and his parents research, ponder and plan a burger to tantalize taste buds and win points.

This year was no different. We all gathered last Saturday with ingredients in hand and proceeded to create our burgers.

(It is very serious and sometimes secretive work.)

I came up with the idea of a Mediterranean inspired burger this time. I mixed sun-dried tomato, garlic, green onion and other fine ingredients into my meat and formed patties. Then I topped it with feta, thinly sliced cucumber, tomato, red onion & my homemade kalamata olive spread.

Matt graciously grilled my burger for me since I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to hamburgers on the grill.

We each made two burgers, cut them into fourths and put them out in front of their assigned number and then filled our plates.

Since there are no impartial judges, we tasted for ourselves and rated each other's burgers on a five point scale.

And guess what?

I came in 2nd place!!!

1st place went to Ryan who created a delicious teriyaki burger topped with cheddar cheese, grilled pineapple, and a sweet BBQ sauce.

Matt came in 6th place (out of 8), which was actually an improvement from last year.

If you're interested in the rules & regulations of this competition, email me and I can lay them out for you. But be warned, the rules are subject to change at any time. And the only thing you win is bragging rights.

Mr. Chubbs

This is Mr. Chubbs (a.ka. Peter):

We went to the doctor for his two month check up this morning. When we put him on the scale (naked this time), he came in at a surprising 16 lbs. 2.2 oz. It actually raised a red flag on the computer that indicated it might have been misentered. We weighed him again - same result. The doctor says mr. chubbs is a very healthy baby boy - thank goodness!

P.S. I think he takes after his daddy who was nicknamed "fireplug" until he was 5 because of his round belly and stocky build (who would know looking at him now?).

15

I took Peter to the Mother & Baby Source store today to weigh him and my jaw dropped open when the scale read 15.05 lbs. Now, yes, he was wearing some lite-weight clothes, so naked (which is how a baby's weight is often determined) he's probably closer to to 14.5 lbs - but still, he's gigantic for 8 weeks old. He put on 6lbs in 8 weeks!

To put this in perspective, doctor's generally want to see full-term babies double their birthweight by 6 months. He's on target to do that in 3 months. And at 2 years old, Hannah weighs in at 25.5lbs. The big question in my mind now is when will Peter pass up Hannah in weight?

The good news is that this means he's a healthy boy - who eats often and sleeps well! It also means I'm a crazy productive milk-machine.

I must say, it is a good thing for younger siblings to be big and sturdy because

they put up with a lot of poking, prodding and


over-zealous cuddling from their older siblings. :)

the best things at the zoo

Today we took Hannah and some of her cousins to the zoo. It turns out that the best things at the zoo (in Hannah's mind) were:

a. her cousins (Reagan & Sydney)

b. the plastic animals on the carousel (even though it was her first time on the carousel she loved it!)

c. the water (although she did find the pink birds interesting)

Who can fathom the mind of a two year old?

P.S. I asked Matt to take some pictures of me with the kids this weekend and this is what he came up with

(not quite what I had in mind)

happy 4th

Happy 4th of July!

(well, I'm a few days late, but give me a break I have a 2 year old and a 7 week old.)

We celebrated by heading to Merced and throwing a 60th birthday party for both of Matt's parents!

(and yes, there really are 60 candles on that cake.)

After the party we headed out to the street to sing patriotic songs, wave flags and...

watch my brothers-in-law play with fire!

They put on a pretty good show!

Best 60th birthday gift = 8 grandchildren

(I think I'll start calling them "Ken & Jean plus eight".)